Use the right tool for the job

September 28, 2012

The plastic versus wood pallet debate has been going on since, well, plastic pallets came on the market. Visit any pallet manufacturer’s website that is regularly updated with news and information (not very many, but we digress), and you’ll see the “our solution is better than yours!” debate played out.

But here’s the best angle from which to look at the wood-is-better-than-plastic argument.

First off, the wood pallet industry has nothing against plastic. There’s no conspiracy here. In fact, the people that work in the wood pallet industry are big fans of plastic...just like everyone else in the World. The advent of plastic has made our lives easier in ways too numerous to count. From cell phones to shampoo bottles to photo copiers, printers the interior of the family car. Wow! The list goes on and on, and on. A World without plastic is impossible to imagine.

And therein lies the core of our argument.

Plastic is essential for so many products to exist, and yet plastic is produced by the burning of fossil fuels that are finite. So why waste precious fossil fuels to create products such as pallets that do not need to be made of plastic.

Heat treated wood pallets and wooden crates are as strong, durable and sanitary as any plastic pallet on the market today. In fact, wood pallets are MORE sanitary than plastic pallets, as germs can live longer on plastic ones and may be more difficult to remove—even by washing! Customers of wood pallet manufacturers also understand that wood pallets are cheaper to produce, purchase—come from sustainable forests, do not unnecessarily waste our precious fossil fuels during production, and are 100% recyclable when they reach the end of their life cycle.